No one is disputing that Girard Township owns Lake Erie Community Park, which includes a campground near 80-foot-high bluffs that overlook Lake Erie.

The question is who has absolute legal possession and control of the 125 acres: The township or the nonprofit public park and its board?

Over the next several days, a jury in Erie County Court will examine past practices, property deeds, minutes and other information, some dating back more than 70 years, as it tries to answer the question and settle the future of a coveted piece of land that everyone in the case agrees is a natural treasure of western Erie County.

"Does the township have exclusive right to the possession of the property?" Judge John Garhart said as he introduced the case to the jury and a gallery packed with about 40 people on Monday.

Girard got the deed to the property in 1941, but the board of Lake Erie Community Park has managed the land since then without challenge -- until seven years ago.

Girard sued the Lake Erie Community Park in early 2006, seeking to remove about 200 camp trailers that the township claimed were too close to an eroding bluff. The two sides agreed in July 2006 to relocate the trailers to more inland areas of the property.

Unresolved was the issue, now before the jury, of who controls Lake Erie Community Park.

For the township, the proof is in the property records.

Its lawyer, David Rhodes, told the jury in his opening statement that the documents clearly give the township absolute control.

"All you will need to do is rely on the deeds," Rhodes said.

For the park, the proof is in interpretation of the deeds and other evidence.

Its lawyers, Eric Purchase and Timothy George, are arguing that a close reading of the property records, as well as minutes of the Lake Erie Community Park, show that Girard Township, despite its ownership of the land, always intended for the park and its board to take care of it.

"Memories fade, different agendas arise and people take action based on faulty memory -- that is what happened here," Purchase said in his opening statement.

Lake Erie Community Park was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1939. On Sept. 9, 1940, according to undisputed evidence, the park bought the 125 acres for $7,500 from the Carnegie Land Co., an affiliate of Carnegie Steel.

On April 21, 1941, the park deeded 111 acres of the property to Girard Township for $1, with the rest of the land transferred to the township decades later.

Records do not specify why the transfers occurred, though the lawyers cited tax-exemption concerns as a possible reason.

The 1941 deed, in language that has never been altered, stipulates that the land remain "a public recreational park forever," and includes another paragraph critical to the case. It states that Girard Township's "only responsibility and liability" in connection with the property "shall be proper upkeep and maintenance" of all roads on it.

"If Girard's only responsibility is for the roads, the park has responsibility for the rest," Purchase said.

Rhodes, the township's lawyer, acknowledged the decades-long arrangement between the township and the park board, but he said the "township has decided to move in another direction."

His first witness was township Supervisor Sandra Anderson. Before detailing the township's position in the dispute, she commented on the beauty of the land at the center of the fight.

"It is a wonderful piece of property, wonderful to watch sunsets at," she testified.

ED PALATTELLA can be reached at 870-1813 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNpalattella.